History of mentalities

The history of mentalities is a calque, a word for word translation, of the French term histoire des mentalités, which might also be translated as "history of attitudes", "mindsets" or "world-views". The term describes a particular manner of doing history associated with the "critical turn" (tournant critique) of the latter generation of the Annales School (in particular, the historian of books and reading Roger Chartier).

The history of mentalities focuses not on the wars or great men which have been the subject matter of most European history-writing since ancient times, but on the wider mindsets of past cultural and social groups. In keeping with the Annales School's interest in the longue durée (long-term), it tends to focus on gradual developments rather than short-term events.

Peter Burke, 'Strengths and Weaknesses in the History of Mentalities'. in Varieties of Cultural History (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), pp. 162–82; revised from original publication in History of European Ideas, 7 (1986), 439-51.